FALMOUTH – For those who want to curl on the Cape, there is one place to go: the Cape Cod Curling Club in Falmouth. The club attracts people from throughout the region who want to participate in this winter sport that resembles shuffle board on ice.
This winter, the club is having a special Learn to Curl session.
The Adult Introduction to Curling program consists of eight – 2-hour sessions weekly held on Sunday from 4 to 6 p.m.
The Cape Cod Curling Club has a rich history.
Jeanie Yaroch and Todd Benedict from the Cape Cod Curling Club talk about the group’s January classes for beginners and how people can join the group.
In March 1969, after visiting The Country Club in Brookline where the first American curling rink was established in 1820, Dr. David Dewees decided curling should come to Cape Cod. A small band of dedicated non-curlers took to the ice at the Falmouth Ice Arena with stones loaned by The Country Club in Brookline and the American Curling Foundation. The pioneers learned about curling from other clubs and by attending bonspiels where they were royally trounced, according to organizers, but had fun and found encouragement.
Cape Cod Curling Club joined the Grand National Curling Club of America, Inc., and was the first club ever to send women representatives. Now the Grand National Curling Club is open to both men and women.
The club started two community programs, one for school children and one for senior curlers. As ice hockey became more popular, the curling club was left without a place to curl, and for two years, curling was limited to Sunday mornings when eight to twelve dedicated members met to travel to Braeburn Country Club. But then the J.K. Lilly family was planning a sports center for Falmouth and was inspired to include a facility for curling.
In March 1975, members moved into the Cape Cod Curling Club. In 1979, when the Lilly family wished to divest themselves of the curling facility, club members were able to purchase the Club.
Teaching and promoting the sport of curling in the community are integral parts of the curling schedule.
Curling Education continues to be the main theme. Each year, they hold classes for all who have cared to participate, inviting other organizations and institutions to include some curling in their regular programming. Would-be curlers are taught the fundamentals of the sport, the etiquette of the game, and are welcomed into the regular schedule of the Club’s programs.
Not content with winter curling, the Club sponsors three bonspiels in July — mixed, women’s and men’s — which are attended by teams from the US, Canada and Europe and even Asia.
Interest in the sport has grown as a result of curling becoming an Olympic sport at Nagano, Japan in 1998. To further support this growth, the US Curling Association developed an orientation and training video on curling. The Cape Cod Curling Club in Falmouth was the site for filming the video.
Good fellowship continues off the ice as well, with luncheons, Saturday night dinners and other social activities for all members and guests. In addition, the Cape Cod Curling Club supports the community by participating in such endeavors as the Falmouth Christmas parade, the Thanksgiving food donation for the needy, and by contributing to various charitable activities in the area. The club also holds charitable curling events to raise donations to local charity organizations.
To listen to Jeanie Yaroch and Todd Benedict from the Cape Cod Curling Club talk about the group’s January classes for beginners and how people can join the group, click below.
